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    <title>Lightweight Protocols -- LWProtocols.org</title>

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    <META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Ken MacLeod">
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    <META NAME="DC.Subject" CONTENT="distributed computing, distributed objects, remote, rpc, xml, protocols, serialization, CORBA, COM, DCOM, RMI, SOAP, XML-RPC, LDO, WIDL, WDDX, HTTP, HTTP-NG, XMOP, xml-dist-app">
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<h1>Lightweight Protocols -- LWProtocols.org</h1>

 <p>This site is intended as a clearinghouse for information about
 distributed computing architectures that are more structured than
 telnet command protocols or CGIs but less complex or heavy than CORBA
 or DCOM.  The term ``lightweight'' in this context refers to both how
 easy it is for a user to begin using the architecture as well as how
 easy it is for implementors to get started in development and quickly
 produce working code.</p>

 <p>Discussion about lightweight protocols can be directed to the <a
 href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-dist-app/">xml-dist-app</a>
 mailing list.  To subscribe, send a message to <a
 href="mailto:xml-dist-app-request@w3.org">xml-dist-app-request@w3.org</a>
 with the subject "subscribe".</p>

 <p>Telnet-friendly protocols (HTTP, FTP, SMTP, NNTP, POP) are the
 original and most widely-deployed lightweight protocols.  Generally,
 the protocols described on this site provide additional structure in
 the protocols that ASCII line-based protocols never standardized.</p>

<h2>Links</h2>

 <p>Please send links and updates to <a
 href="mailto:ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us">ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us</a></p>

 <h3>News and Events</h3>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://www9.org/w9-call-developer.html">"Distributed
   Computing on the Web" Developer's Day track at WWW9</a> &nbsp; -
    "distributed computing technologies as applied to applications
     running over the World Wide Web. [...] emphasis on [...] using
     remote method-calls/procedure-calls or messaging."
   <li><a href="http://www9.editthispage.com/">"Distributed Computing Track at WWW9" weblog</a> &nbsp; -
    Includes the agenda and a <a
    href="http://www9.editthispage.com/discuss/">discussion forum</a>. (<a href="mailto:dave@userland.com">Dave Winer</a>)
   <li><a href="http://www9.org/w9-panels.html">XML Protocols Shakedown panel at WWW9</a> &nbsp; -
    "The goals of this panel are to review [XML protocols] and
    identify their common threads [...]"
   <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/03/15-XML-protocol-Viewpoints">XML Protocol Viewpoints</a> &nbsp; -
    A gathering of viewpoints from XTech2000. (Mar. 15, 2000, <a
    href="mailto:eric@w3.org">Eric Prud'hommeaux</A>)
   <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/04/18-WWW9-XML-protocol-agendae">WWW9 XML Protocol Agendae</a> &nbsp; -
    Quick notes for the agenda discussion on xml-dist-app. (Apr. 18, 2000, <a
    href="mailto:eric@w3.org">Eric Prud'hommeaux</A>)
   <li>Note: general discussion of XML Protocols and Distributed Computing should be directed to the xml-dist-app mailing list (see below).
  </ul>

 <h3>Overviews</h3>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/03/29-XML-protocol-matrix">Protocol Matrix</a> &nbsp; -
    Facet-based comparison of XML protocols. (Mar. 29, 2000, <a href="mailto:eric@w3.org">Eric Prud'hommeaux</A>)
  </ul>

 <h3>Community</h3>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a> &nbsp;-
     Weblog featuring many links on web protocols.
   <li><a href="http://soap-wrc.com/webservices/">SOAP - WebServices Resource Center</a> &nbsp;-
     News, articles, and links about SOAP.

   <li><a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-dist-app/">xml-dist-app</a> &nbsp;-
     XML Distributed Applications mailing list.  To subscribe, send a
     message to <a
     href="mailto:xml-dist-app-request@w3.org">xml-dist-app-request@w3.org</a>
     with the subject "subscribe".
  </ul>

 <h3>Data Transfer Architectures</h3>

  <li><a href="data-transfer.html">General</a>
  <li><a href="linda-systems.html">Linda Systems</a> &nbsp;-

 <h3>RPC and Distributed Object Architectures</h3>

  <p>``Architectures'' are complete systems for distributed computing
  and usually include services, protocols, or formats for transport,
  serialization, making requests, and discovery.</p>

  <h4>Lightweight, cross-platform, language-neutral architectures</h4>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://casbah.org/Scarab/">Scarab</a> &nbsp;-
     Open Source communications framework
   <li><a href="http://develop.com/soap/">SOAP</a> &nbsp;-
     Simple Object Access Protocol
   <li><a href="http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/products/xml/examples/#rpc">Sun's XML Messaging example</a> &nbsp;-
     Sending arbitrary XML messages over HTTP.
   <li><a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/">XML-RPC</a> &nbsp;-
     RPC using XML over HTTP
   <li><a href="http://www.ontosys.com/xml-rpc/extensions.html">XML-RPC Extensions</a>
   <li><a href="http://xmltp.org/">XMLTP</a> &nbsp;-
     XML Transfer Protocol
  </ul>

  <h4>Lightweight, language or platform dependent architectures</h4>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://www.gnustep.org/">GNU Distributed Objects</a> &nbsp;-
     Distributed Objects for Objective-C, GNUstep implementation
   <li><a href="http://www.java.sun.com/products/jdk/rmi/">Java RMI</a> &nbsp;- 
     Java Remote Method Invocation
   <li><a href="http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/System/Documentation/Developer/YellowBox/TasksAndConcepts/ObjectiveC/moreobjc.htm#891"</a>OpenStep Distributed Objects</a> &nbsp;-
     Apple's Distributed Objects for Objective-C
   <li><a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~asz00557/ap/pyro.html">Pyro</a> &nbsp;-
     Python Remote Objects
   <li><a href="http://starship.skyport.net/crew/danilo/">RemoteCall</a> &nbsp;-
     Call functions/methods on a remote Python process.
   <li><a href="http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/RPC/">RPC::PlRPC</a> &nbsp;- 
     Perl module for building Perl servers and clients
   <li><a href="http://www.perl.com/CPAN/modules/RPC/">RPC::Simple</a> &nbsp;-
     Perl module for simple OO async remote procedure calls
   <li><a href="http://www2.cs.cornell.edu/zeno/Projects/tcldp">Tcl-DP</a> &nbsp;- 
     Distributed Programming extension to Tcl/Tk
  </ul>

  <h4>Other Architectures</h4>

  <ul>
   <li>CORBA &nbsp;-
    on <a href="http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Object_Oriented/CORBA/">DMOZ</a>, <a href="http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Software/Programming_Tools/Object_Oriented_Programming/CORBA___Common_Object_Request_Broker_Architecture/">Yahoo</a>
   <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP-NG/">HTTP-NG</a> &nbsp-
    Results of the now-defunct HTTP-NG activity.  Lots of good info on Internet scale issues in distributed computing.
   <li>[COM/DCOM, ILU, Sun/DCE RPC, ...]</p>
  </ul>

 <h3>Serialization Formats</h3>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net/documents/sodl.htm">SODL</a> &nbsp;-
     The Simple Object Definition Language
   <li><a href="http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net/documents/xmop.htm">XMOP</a> &nbsp;-
     XML Metadata Object Persistence
   <li>[WDDX, LDO-XML, LDO-Binary, XP, ObjectStore, Coins, BizTalk, ...]
  </ul>

 <h3>Applications and APIs</h3>

  <p>These applications either implement or use lightweight protocols
  or are specially designed to work well with lightweight protocols.</p>

  <ul>
   <li><a href="http://Casbah.org/">The Casbah Project</a> &nbsp;-
     Distributed application environment.
   <li><a href="http://LWProtocols.org/DWhite.html">DWhite</a> &nbsp;- 
     Distributed Whiteboard API for synchronizing trees or graphs of data.
   <li><a href="http://LWProtocols.org/DWChat.html">DWChat</a> &nbsp;-
     DWhite Chat API
  </ul>

 <h3>References</h3>

  <p>[RFCs, organizations, articles, mailing lists, ...]</p>

  <h4>Security</h4>

   <ul>
    <li><a href="http://www.boran.com/security/">The IT Security Checkbook</a> &nbsp;-
     A 'self help' guide to computer & network security, primarily for
     security managers, programmers and system administrators. <i>And
     good for developers who want to consider their needs.  -- KM</i>

    <li><a href="http://www.interhack.net/pubs/fwfaq/">Internet
     Firewalls: Frequently Asked Questions</a>

    <li><a href="http://www.interhack.net/pubs/email-trojan/">Why
    Anti-Virus Software Cannot Stop the Spread of Email Worms</a> &nbsp;-
    Though based on a flawed premise, an otherwise good article about
    policy and education as part of a security solution.

    <li><a href="http://monkeyfist.com/articles/514">Web RPCs
    Considered Harmful</a> &nbsp;-
    Describes major issues with Internet security and open standards
    when writing apps that expose their APIs over the Internet.

   </ul>

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